It was time. My old binoculars were too worn out. Everything I looked at was blurry. I had already sent them to be repaired once, but now they weren’t working again. I could not seem to get a sharp focus no matter what I tried. To be honest, I kind of abused them. I certainly used them. Every day in heat, wind, rain, mist, sand, dust, night, snow, any condition you can think of, me and my bins have been in it. I have had my Eagle Rangers for quite a few years, but now it was time to try something new. After some research Gus and I decided on Nikon 8x42 Monarchs 7.
Of course, when they arrived on Thursday, I had to take them out for a spin on Friday! I attached my binocular harness in the morning and headed out the door! I decided to go to Bath, Maine again first to see what I could see. The first place I went to was the South Boat Launch on the Kennebec River. Gus and I had stopped here before and I wondered what I would see now that the snow had melted and the river had thawed.
It was the first one I had seen in Maine this year! Later I saw a few others farther up the river in Bath, including a pair on a nesting platform!
Song Sparrows sang all around me. I heard a few Blue jays and Robins and saw Cormorants in the river. The south boat launch is not an eBird Hotspot yet, but I think it should be, so I nominated it for one. We’ll see what happens. After leaving the boat launch I drove north into town along the riverfront, and then up to the North Boat Launch and Public landing, which is an eBird Hotspot.
This is a mixed flock of Herring, Ring-billed and Great Black-backed Gulls.
And then this Double-crested Cormorant came drifting by!
But I wanted, needed to see more birds! Where should I go next? I looked on my map app and saw Reid State Park. That’s not too far away, I thought to myself, so I got in my car and drove there. I had no idea what I would find, but I was stunned when I got there! Come back tomorrow to see what I saw! Yep, I gave those new bins a good workout!
